For sometime now, the Thomas Bath has been set up on the outside of the main door of Moriarty’s (previously Dalai’s) cage.
Because of Perry’s recent wobbliness & the need to avoid open dishes of water in case he fell in, I had been putting the bath out less & less. Add to that, Lennie rarely, if ever, comes out & he is our main bath user. The bath location seemed redundant.
Lennie has always liked a bath, so I was holding it up to him in his cage so he could continue having his baths. With this in mind, I decided to relocate the bath to the inside of the main door of Perry & Lennie’s cage. That way, when Perry is spending the daytime in Moriarty’s cage, I can set up the bath for Lennie, close the door so it is lined up neatly with his perches & he can bathe at his leisure.
Lennie checking out the bath
Lennie having a bath
Lennie having a bath whilst Moriarty watches
Moriarty & Lennie conversing over the bath
Lennie comes out to check the bath whilst Moriarty watches
This system has been working well. Lennie can have his bath (he has been known to shout when he wants me to put it in!) I do not need to stand there holding it. Perry is safe from the open water. Moriarty is free to take a bath on the rare occasion that he is in the mood!
With ongoing health issues among the flock, I thought it would be a good idea to try out a baby monitor, specifically for viewing them during night-time.
Baby monitor
Normally, during times of increased worry, I will check on the birds at intervals during the night. Because of the darkness, it means having to turn the lamp on in order to properly check that all was ok. If all was ok, then I regretted potentially disturbing their sleep by momentarily turning the light on. Also, in the case of Perry’s seizures, I worried that suddenly turning the light on would trigger one. These thoughts led me to getting a baby monitor.
This is a game-changer as far as I am concerned! Now, when I wake during the night, I can flip the monitor on, via my phone, & check if there is any disturbance, all without having to enter the room & turn a light on!
Perry & Lennie’s cage at night time
Granted, it is not perfect. Their cages are partially covered overnight so I can only view the bottom part, so if any ‘difficulty’ is happening in the upper area, under the cover, then I will not be able to detect it, unless they are making a sound. Also, the positioning of the monitor means I cannot see the cage floor, which would be useful to determine if there is any blood loss occurring. That said, the primary purpose was to see if Perry was having/had a seizure, in which case, 99.99% of the time he would be on the cage floor.
The night picture is grainy & the cage bars & cage furniture can throw all sorts of weird shadows. Each night when I turn the last light off, I take a screenshot to use for comparison. If I am unsure of what I am seeing during the night, I take a look at the earlier screenshot to confirm a suspect area is actually a normal shadow, rather than something to be concerned about.
An added bonus is that when I am not in the room, either in another room, or out & about, I can still access the monitor & view them during the daytime, with far less faff than setting up a standard webcam. The monitor is kept on ‘privacy’ where the lens is physically rolled into the bottom of the unit & only switched on whenever I want to use it, rather than being ‘on’ all the time.
Puddings & Toyboys 